Robert-Auguste Touchon

Robert-Auguste Touchon (born December 18, 1878 in Paris , † July 11, 1960 in La Tronche , Département Isère ) was a French general who was commander in chief of the 6e armée during the Battle of the Aisne in 1940 .

Life

Touchon completed an officer training at the military school Saint-Cyr between 1899 and 1901 and was part of the 84th training course (Promotion d'In Salah) . Then he was an officer in various units of the army (Armée de terre) . He took part in the First World War and was awarded the Croix de guerre for his services . On July 31, 1932 he was Colonel in command of the Infantry and Armored Force School (École d'Apllication de l'Infanterie et Chars des de Combat) and held this post until December 1, 1935. During this time, January 4, 1933 his promotion to the Général de brigade and was between December 1, 1935 and August 1, 1936 Head of the Faculty of Infantry Tactics at the Center of the Armed Forces for Tactical Studies (Center d'Études Tactiques Interarmes) .

Touchon was from August 1, 1936 to June 25, 1938 commander of the 42nd Division and received his promotion to Général de division on September 23, 1936 in this role . Subsequently, on June 25, 1938, he was promoted to the Général de corps d'armée and he then acted between June 25, 1936 and September 2, 1939 as Commandant (Commandant en chef) of the 14th military region. In personal union he was also military governor of Lyon from June 25, 1938 to September 2, 1939 .

After the beginning of the Second World War , Touchon was initially the commander of the XIV. Corps between September 2 and November 27, 1939 and then from November 27, 1939 to February 13, 1940, the commanding general of the XXIII. Corps. On February 13, 1940 he became general (Général d'armée) and then took over the post of commander-in-chief of the 6th Army, which was under construction, until July 1, 1940 . After the start of the western campaign , the 6th Army was supposed to establish the connection between the 9th Army under General André Georges Corap and the 2nd Army under General Charles Huntziger . In mid-May 1940, General Alphonse Georges formed a front line along the Aisne and Crozat Canal , uniting the still incomplete Touchon 6th Army with the still fictional 7th Army and commanding the 9th Army, which he still believed to exist canalized Sambre and to keep the Sambre-Oise Canal . In the following years he took part with the 6th Army in the Battle of the Aisne in June 1940. After the armistice of Compiègne on June 22, 1940 , he acted temporarily again between July 1 and August 20, 1940 as commanding general of the 14th military region and then retired.

He was also honored with the Croix de guerre and the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor (Grand-croix de la Légion d'Honneur) . In 1940 he became a German prisoner of war, from which he was released in 1944.

Web links

• Entry in The Generals of WWII
• Biography on the homepage of the École supérieure de guerre
• Entry on the home of the Musée des Officiers Généraux Français Armes & Services

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Historique de la 84e Promotion de l'Ecole spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr (1899-1901), promotion d'In Salah
2. ^ Charles D. Pettibone: The Organization and Order of Battle of Militaries in World War II: VOLUME VI ITALY and FRANCE Including the Neutral Countries of San Marino, Vatican , Verlag Trafford Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-426-94633-2 , P. 313.
3. ^ Charles D. Pettibone: The Organization and Order of Battle of Militaries in World War II: VOLUME VI ITALY and FRANCE Including the Neutral Countries of San Marino, Vatican , Verlag Trafford Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-426-94633-2 , P. 367.
4. ^ Raymond Cartier : The Second World War , Volume I, Munich 1967, p. 136.
5. ^ Raymond Cartier: The Second World War , Volume I, Munich 1967, p. 146.